Brush-cleaning device



H. B. BRANDON BRUSH CLEANING DEVICE Filed Oct. 12 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

May 13 1924.

H. B. BRANDON BRUSH CLEANING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 12. 1920 IN VENTOR.

3 5221,; f EM/ i A TTORNEY.

in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Brush-Cleaning De-' ble ofgeneral use for that purpose, particularly adapted for cleaning latented May 13, 1924.

UNITED STATES. PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY BRATTEN BRANDON, OF WORCESTER,.MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO JOHN E. SCI-IRODER, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

BRUSH-CLEANING DEVICE.

Application filed October 12,1920. Serial No. 416,489.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY BRATTEN BRANDON, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at the city of YVorcester,

vices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a machine for cleaning hand brushes. "IVhile capa it is commercial paint brushes which, have been filled with paint and become hardened by failure to clean when the paint was fresh. On January 13, 1900 I patented in Sweden under #11,830, a device for cleaning artists brushes. These brushes" are very small and soft, being made of camels hair generally. "The principleof that 'machine involves the revolution of acolnplete cylindrical brush having radial bristles in contact with the artists brush: Its usefulness, was very limited on account of the fact that the bristles of the machine brush were constantly impinging on the bristles of the brush being cleaned. This resulted in bending the camels hairbristles back when the machine wasstarted and keeping them in that position as long as the machine operated. Therefore, the machine was ineffective, even for cleaning camels hair brushes of a very small size, and was abso lutely inooperative for cleaning anything like a heavy journeymans paintbrush through which paint had permeated and on which it had hardened,

I have now discovered what I'believe to consequently acting always in the same manner on the bristles of the brush to be cleaned, I engage the latter rapidly with a plurality of separated tufts of stiff bristles one after the other. In this way the paint brush is given a quick blow by a. tuft of comparatively stiff bristles and then released. After the bristlesof the paint brush have sprung back to their straight position they are again struck quickly by the same or another tuft of brist1es. Furthermore, the tufts that are used in the above mentioned manner carry a. liquid cleaning compound, of any desired or suitable character, into contact with the brush .to be cleaned. I provide in addition paddles which also throw the cleaning, liquid on the brush to be cleaned. The invention'involves these features and others as will appear.

Reference is to be had to the accompany ing drawings in which "Fig. 1 is an end elevation of a brush.

cleaning machine embodying one form of my invention; c

Fig. is a. perspective view of an ad'- justable brush holder which I can use with the invention; v i

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the machine;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of one form of cleaning element in the machine;

Fig. 5 is afplan of one form of holder for the cleaning element];

Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional view of the machineillustrating the action thereof; 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of the machine; i

Fig. 8 is a similar view showing certain modifications constituting the preferred form, and

Fig.9 is a plan of the shaft shown in Fig. 8 illustrating a preferred means for holding the cleaning element.

I have shown the machine as mounted on a suitable baseboard 1 on which are secured supports 2 and for carryinga rigid cyl-c position against the cylinder by means of a spring 9 having a curved bearing terminal 10 frictionally engaging aprojection on the end of the cylinder. At both ends the cylinder is shown as having its caps connected to it by a rabbeted edge 11 to seal the joint.

In this way the. ends can be removed, al-- though stationary permanent ends can be employed if desired. y

longitudinal shaft extendsthrough the twocaps or ends of the casing. In the form shown in Figs. 4 and 5 this shaft is formed of two parts 12 and 12 and provided with offset portions 13 and 14 opposite each other to provide a space 20, of rectangular or other desired form, for holding a bunch or tuft of bristles 19. In other words, this constitutes a brush cleaning element. In this form I have shown the parts 12 and 12 together as constituting a cylinder, each one being semi-cylindrical in form. They are heldtogether by providing their ends with screw threads 16 on which nuts 18 are provided. In this way they are caused to clamp. the bristles 19 in position. These bristles preferably are formed of wire so,

that they will be stiffer than the bristles of the brush being cleaned. Two opposite tufts are formed by clamping the wires at thecenter as shown.

It is intended to provide a brush cleaning composition in liquid form in this cylinder and to fill it deeply enough so that the brush cleaning element 19 will go deep down into it.- The shaft 12 is rotated by any suitable means, as for example, a gear 31 on one end of the shaft meshing with a larger gear 29 having a crank handle 30 thereon. This gear 29 is shown as mounted on a shaft 28 supported by a bracket 27. The shaft 12 is held at this'end by a collar 27 and at the other end by a collar 34: and a nut 35 outside.

The form of device for holding the cleaning element just described is suitable for use on this machine, but I prefer to use a slotted shaft 12 as shown in Figs. 8 and 9.

Diametrically through this shaft extend a plurality of longitudinal slots 32. The central slot is the equivalent of the space 20 above referred to. It is designed to hold the tuft of bristles which projects in both directions from the shaft, both ends of which are depended upon for cleaning purposes. The bristles are held in place by set screws 33. In the other two slots 32 I place vanes 30 and secure them by screws 33 with which these slots are provided. Ihave shown the brush cleaning element 19 as mounted at the middle of this shaft and the two vanes as mounted on opposite sides of it. They are provided to throw the liquid from the bot tomof the receptacle toward the brush to be cleaned.

The cylinder 5 is provided with an opening 36 through its wall for receiving a paint brush or other brush 36 to be cleaned. If desired I can operate the machine with the parts above described but I have shown a device for locating the paint brush in the form of a collar 21. This is adjustably mounted to fit the external surface of the cylinder 5 and is provided with a knob 23 by which it can be turned circumferentially thereon. This collar is provided with a series of openings 24 and 25, the former being shown as rectangular and the latter of another shape. These forms of openings are provided for the purpose of conveniently receiving brushes of different sizes and shapes. In order to hold this collar against displacement longitudinally I-have provided the cylinder with pins 22. An opening in the cylinder is made wide and long enough to receive the largest paint or other brush that has to be cleaned. As the collar 21 covers up this opening I have provided a mark M on the cylinder in line with it so as to assist the operator in lining up the small opening 2 1 or 25 with thelarge brush opening in the cylinder.

, In operation, when it is desired to clean a brush, the cylinder is provided approximately one third full with turpentine or gasoline or other solution having a solvent effect on paint or other material to be removed from the brush. If the collar 21 is used, it is turned until the selected opening 24 or 25 is in line with the mark M. Then the paint brush 36 is inserted through the two. registering openings and positioned as shown in Fig. 6. The operator can hold this brush with one hand somewhat yieldingly and turn the crank 30, with the other. On. account of the gearing shown he can rotate the shaft 12 at a high speed. This causes the vanes 30to pass through the liqnid at the bottom of the cylinder and to throw it against .the walls of the cylinder and alsotoward and against the bristles of the paint brush.

Furthermore, the brush cleaning element 19 rotates through the liquid rapidly. This has two functions. It separates the bristles of the brush by its intermittent contact, al lowingthe bristles to spring back to their normal straight position immediately. It also splashes the paint cleaning, liquid against the bristles of the paint brush at a time whenv the bristles thereof are in the act of being separated. In this way the cleaning liquid will freely enter all spaces between the bristles of the paint brush.

The fact that the bristles or wires 19 are separated from each other, or formed in tufts spaced apart circumferentially, constitutes an important feature of the inven-' tion becausetif a continuous brush were employed having a continuous operating surface, as shown in my prior Swedish patent, the flexing of the bristles of the paint brush back and forth would not take place. In that case the bristles would be bent and kept substantially in that position, but according to the present invention they are bent quickly out of their normal position and then allowed to spring back by their natural resiliency before they are again engaged by one of the tufts of wire bristles. The action of the cleaning element is intermittent. It is to be noted that it is while they are being bent back that they are saturated with the paint cleaning liquid carried up from the supply below by the wires 19. These wires are close enough together so that they carry a considerable amount of this liquid with them by surface tension. rotated fast enough to throw it from them by centrifugal force. The action of the vanes is to splash a considerable quantity of paint cleaner around the casing and some of it will fall against the brush being cleaned at all times during the revolution of th shaft.

Although I have illustrated and described more than one form of the invention I am aware of the fact that other modifications can be made therein by any person skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as expressed in theclaims. Therefore I do not wish to be limited to all the details of construction herein shown and described but what I do claim is 1. In a machine for cleaning brushes, the combination of a shaft, a tuft of wire bristles projecting radially from said shaft with a vacant space around it, means for rotating said shaft, means for locating a brush to be cleaned with its bristles in a position to be engaged by the wire bristles as the shaft is rotated, whereby said wire bristles will tend to bend the bristles of the brush to be cleaned suddenly out of their normal position and will then pass on by them, allowing them to bend back by their own resiliency, and will thereafter strike them again and repeat the process, and means for throwing a They also can be 2. In a machine for cleaning brushes,.the

combination of a receptacle adapted to re-v ceive a brush cleaning liquid therein, a shaft above the liquid, a tuft of wire bristles projecting radially from said shaft, means for rotating said shaft, means for locating a brush to be cleaned with its bristles in a position to be engaged by the wire bristles as the shaft is rotated, whereby said wire bristles will bend the bristles of the brush and carry the brush cleaning liquid with them into contact with the bristles of the brush while theyare bent, and vanes on said shaft also dipping into the liquid and arran ed to throw the liquid against the walls of t e cylinder and the bristles of the brush.

3. The method of cleaning brushes which consists in suddenly imparting a blow to the bristles thereof by a body of stifi bristles to bend and separate the bristles of the brush to be cleaned, allowing the bristles to spring back to normal position, and at the same time throwing a liquid cleaning compound into the brush while the bristles are separated and bent out of normal position.

In witness whereof he has hereunto set hishand and aflixed his seal, this ninth day of October, 1920.

HARRY BRATTEN BRANDON. Attested:

WM. E. Ban, JOHN SCHRODER. 

